Shropshire is a traditional county in the Midlands, meeting the Welsh border on its western side. It is a mostly rural county, with its only settlement with a population of over 100,000 being the New Town of Telford. However, with the rural nature of the county, smaller settlements such as the county town of Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry play a much more important role in the road network than would otherwise be the case.

Across the County

The Iron Bridge

The most important route through the county is the A5, which passes from the northwest of the county to Shrewsbury before heading eastwards out of the county, though its importance on the eastern side of the county has been undermined since the opening of the M54 in the Telford area in 1975, and its extension towards Wolverhampton, which opened in 1983.

As befits its status as the county town, despite its relatively small size (albeit not for Shropshire), Shrewsbury dominates the road network of the county, being the focal point of the majority of the county, being on the A5 as well as the A49, which runs north-south through the county, and the A458 into mid-Wales.

In the east of the county, Telford forms a hub of lesser importance, but this is due to the historical position of the New Town being an expansion of a previously extant group of towns, such as Wellington (a former Primary Destination in its own right), Oakengates and Dawley, and also to the presence of The Wrekin, a large, prominent hill immediately to the west of the town which funnelled the routes in the area into the A5. Telford also marks the north-western point of where Thomas Telford's Holyhead Road diverged from the A5 to take in what is now the A464 towards Wolverhampton.

Much of the southern section of Shropshire is hilly and so the road network is more fragmented. Roads that do enter this part of the county either follow the valleys or wind their way across the hills.